🔶 Sanctions against airlines; passengers confused, contradictions in officials’ statements

Majid Akhvan, the spokesperson of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, told ILNA news agency on Monday, 30 Shahrivar, that U.S. sanctions have not caused foreign flights to stop, and that aside from the cancellation of flights by one airline—Mahan—to some specific destinations including Muscat, Istanbul, and Ankara, the operations of other airlines “continue as in the past.”

He called reports of a halt in flights to Turkey incorrect and said: “Such a matter is not true, and foreign flights by other airlines are still in operation.”

These remarks were made while Abu Zarr Shirodi, head of the Civil Aviation Organization, had said the day before, in an interview with “Donya-e Eqtesad,” that currently no foreign airline is operating in Iran and that only the “Al Iraqiya” airline flies to Iran.

He pointed to the cancellation of Mahan’s flights to Turkey and Oman and said that after the U.S. sanctions against Iran’s aviation industry are implemented starting on 31 Shahrivar (22 September), countries’ performance in complying with these sanctions depends on their “current method, conduct, and policies.”